1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to non-woven fabric. More particularly, the present invention is related to molded non-woven fabric and methods of molding.
2. Description of Related Art
Non-woven fabrics or textiles (hereinafter “fabric”) have been developed for many applications. The ability to mold or shape such non-woven fabrics into a desired shape would vastly expand their utility for many other applications.
Some non-woven fabrics have been successfully molded. For example, non-woven fabrics in the form of a three-dimensional fiber network have been molded. The three-dimensional fiber network is derived from bats of needle punched felts that have been impregnated with binders. The binder in these non-woven bats assists in the molding process to ensure that the fabric, once molded, retains the desired shape. These non-woven bats have a thickness that finds use in many applications such as acoustic insulation, thermal insulation, filter material, and others. Unfortunately, these non-woven bats, once molded, have a hard hand feel. The hard feel and fabric thickness are unacceptable in many applications such as, but not limited to, garment applications, furniture covering applications, and the other soft fabric applications.
Other non-woven fabrics, lacking the above mentioned-binders, have also been successfully shaped. These non-woven fabrics are shaped during the melt-blowing manufacturing process for the raw fabric. During manufacture of the raw fabric, molten thermoplastic materials are extruded through a plurality of fine, usually circular, die capillaries to define a plurality of extruded fibers. The extruded fibers are exposed to a converging high velocity gas stream such as, but not limited to, air that attenuates the extruded fibers to reduce their diameter to a desired dimension. Thereafter, the high velocity gas stream deposits the attenuated fibers on a collecting surface to define a web of randomly disbursed melt-blown fibers. The collecting surface can be shaped to provide non-woven fabrics of any desired shape. Unfortunately, shaped collection surfaces have not proven useful for shaping bulk non-woven fabrics into a variety of different shapes in a time and cost effective manner.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for molded non-woven fabrics and methods of molding, especially for garment, furniture covering, and other known soft fabric applications.